Police Story 2013
Ding Sheng
The story: China cop Zhong Wen (Jackie Chan) makes his way to a bar, where he is meeting his estranged daughter Miao Miao (Jing Tian). Things get hairy when bar owner Wu Jiang (Liu Ye) prevents the patrons from leaving and holds them captive. It turns out that Zhong had crossed paths with a few of the hostages before. And Wu is determined to get to the bottom of an old case.

Adventure thriller CZ12 (2012) was supposed to be Jackie Chan’s last major action film. But without his trademark daredevil stunts, is a Jackie Chan film still worth watching?
In this case, not quite.
To be clear, Police Story 2013 still has action sequences, just fewer and nothing that is likely to result in a loss of life or limb for the famously – some would say recklessly – gungho star.
In his best films, such as Project A (1983) and Armour Of God (1986), the NG (no-good) blooper reels at the end were highlights packed with action. Among Police Story 2013’s bloopers, Chan seems to have more difficulty with the dialogue than any particular manoeuvre.
To execute a scene in which he tries to free himself from being bound to a chair with metal wires, it takes him several takes and only bloodied wrists.
The focus is very much on the plot, so too bad it comes up a little short.
There is some suspense built up at the beginning, when you wonder who Wu Jiang is and why has he taken the trouble to mount such an elaborate set-up.
Besides holding people hostage in the bar and making sure that Zhong is on the premises, he also demands to meet a specific hostage.
Once the pieces fall into place, there is an attempt at a Rashomon-type recreation of an old case.
One by one, those who are present that night add to the story of what went down and gradually fill in the puzzle.
When the mystery is finally unveiled, though, it feels like writer-director Ding Sheng is making a mountain out of a molehill.
And the question of why such an elaborate set-up is necessary in the first place is never really answered.
For the ending to be nicely sewn up, a new character has to be conveniently introduced at the last minute.
In films such as A Beautiful Life (2011), Liu Ye has shown that he can act; here, he is hampered by ham-fisted characterisation.
Although Chan’s role is better sketched out (the absent father element seems to have been drawn from his own life), Ding’s previous collaboration with him in action comedy Little Big Soldier (2010) was less laboured and more fun.
And by the way, why call this Police Story 2013 when it has nothing to do with the four comedy-action Police Story films made between 1985 and 1996, or even New Police Story, 2004’s darker reboot?
Doing so merely feels like a cop-out, not to mention draws attention to the fact that Chan’s best films are behind him.
(ST)

Thanks For Sharing
Stuart Blumberg
The story: Former sex addict Adam (Mark Ruffalo) has been sober for five years and is now helping others with the 12-step process of recovery. He is even ready to start dating when Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes along. His sponsor Mike (Tim Robbins) is supportive of Adam but wary of his own addict son, Danny (Patrick Fugit). Meanwhile, the incorrigible Neil (Josh Gad) unexpectedly finds friendship with the free-spirited Dede (Alecia Moore, better known as pop star Pink).

Perhaps the fact that writer-director Stuart Blumberg had co-written Oscar-nominated gay family drama The Kids Are All Right (2010) attracted this ensemble cast of big names to the film.
But lightning fails to strike twice for Blumberg.
Maybe the problem lies with the fact that addiction is not an inherently hilarious topic. And the light comic tone that Blumberg is going for in his debut directorial feature does not work.
Darren Aronofsky’s disturbing and harrowing Requiem For A Dream (2000) is a far more honest and compelling look at the subject instead.
Here, the stories never quite resonate.
The Neil-Dede plotline is too pat and feels mainly like an acting exercise for pop star Pink. She does an okay job but you never forget that she is Pink. And the chubby Neil borders on being a caricature whose main purpose is to milk some cheap laughs.
In the case of the Adam-Phoebe story, there is also some serious miscasting going on. Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count On Me, 2000) can play wounded and vulnerable in his sleep, but he has zero chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow’s health fanatic. Watching them play at being a flirty couple trading cutesy banter will have you cringing so much that it feels like a workout.
The Mike-Danny father-son strand is potentially the most interesting as it touches upon issues of trust and forgiveness. But it feels slight, given all the characters and material the film is juggling.
What I did learn from the film is that the terminology used in sex addiction is the same as that used in alcohol addiction. Hence, characters talk about being sober and also commemorate their length of sobriety. The idea is that sex addiction is as serious as any other kind of addiction and not just a flimsy excuse that Hollywood stars trot out for their bad behaviour.
In the end, Thanks For Sharing plays like a well-meaning public service announcement. But good intentions alone do not make a good movie, so thanks, but no thanks.
(ST)

Insignificance
Hebe Tien
Wait a minute, when did Taiwan’s Barbie Hsu go back to making music? It turns out, instead, to be S.H.E member Hebe Tien on the cover, looking unlike herself in close-up.
The album warrants greater scrutiny as well. Expectations were high after her well-received solo outings To Hebe (2010) and My Love (2011). And, at first, this new offering seems to fall far short in comparison.
There is a clear theme – insignificance – and there are some gorgeous photos in the CD booklet, thanks to a trip Tien took for the album to Icelandic glacier Vatnajokull.
But there is a languidness to the music that threatens to slip into a torpor now and then.
More attentive listening reveals some interesting imagery in the lyrics and some points of interest in the music and her singing.
The record was inspired by Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska’s Under One Small Star and the title track draws on it: “In the ugliest world, I occasionally catch a glimpse of the most beautiful poem/ Turns out the darkest sky has the brightest stars”.
Her singing is appropriately light-as- air for Impermanence, while Won’t If Not Drunk has an appealing loosey-goosey vibe.
Not quite so insignificant after all.
(ST)

The Best Memoryz
Z-Chen Chang
This is not the way to follow up a good album. Malaysian singer Z-Chen Chang’s In Love With... (2011) featured Valuable Advice and Met Too Soon, moving ballads that showcased his smooth emotive pipes.
But instead of building on that momentum, The Best Memoryz is a collection of eight covers and only two new tracks.
The choice of songs to reinterpret is also not compelling, what with ho-hum radio hits such as Jacky Wu’s Do You Only Think About Me On Nights Like This and Kelly Chen’s Love What You Love.
There is a touch of melancholia to Chang’s voice and it is on A-Sun’s affecting Leaves that he really gets to shine.
As for the new tracks, ballad The Best Memory feels like a so-so attempt to recapture past glories while the more uptempo Love Is My Own Strength is merely passable.
Not exactly the stuff fond memories are made of.
(ST)

Control
Kenneth Bi
The story: Insurance salesman Mark (Daniel Wu) is blackmailed by a mysterious figure and is forced to do his bidding, including crossing some dangerous crooks. When he is captured by Devil (Leon Dai) and his men, he insists on telling his story to the big boss, Tiger (Simon Yam).

Control could well have been inspired by something like The Usual Suspects (1995), in which the protagonist weaves a mesmerising tale with a stunning twist at the end.
Unfortunately, scriptwriter-director Kenneth Bi (Hainan Chicken Rice, 2005) is clearly not in control of the material here which veers off course during the crucial denouement.
The film actually begins promisingly. Set in an unnamed futuristic city in slick shades of black and grey, it seems to be an Asian take on the cyber-punk sci-fi noir genre.
It is unusual enough to be intriguing, but apart from an excuse to use some computer graphics, the setting ultimately does not matter.
So what we are left with is the tale of a man forced against his will to follow the instructions of an auto-tuned voice.
Since the identity of the puppet master is shrouded and what he actually wants (money? vengeance? an advanced degree in puppetry?) is under wraps, it falls to the poor victim to keep us hooked on the story.
Unfortunately, Daniel Wu (New Police Story, 2004) is not charismatic enough to reel you in from the get-go and make you care about what happens to him.
There is some curiosity over what Mark will be forced to do next but the stakes are never very high for the viewer.
The supporting cast of normally reliable actors do not fare well either.
Simon Yam (Eye In The Sky, 2007) appears to be slumming it in a hammy turn as crime boss Tiger while Kara Hui is once again an emotionally distraught mother, too soon after horror flick Rigor Mortis (2013).
As the machinations get more laboured and more characters get pulled in – including Mark’s old girlfriend Jessica (Yao Chen) – you begin to wonder how it will all be resolved.
There is more story-telling involved, and it might leave your jaw hanging – not from admiration, but from incredulity.
(ST)

Chinese Puzzle
Cedric Klapisch
The story: The follow-up to The Spanish Apartment (2002) and Russian Dolls (2005) continues with the story of Frenchman Xavier (Romain Duris) and his friends. He and Wendy (Kelly Reilly) have split up and she moves to New York from Paris with their two children. Xavier then heads for the Big Apple as well where his lesbian friend Isabelle (Cecile de France) is raising a child with her partner. He later reconnects with his ex, Martine (Audrey Tautou), who has two children of her own. Along the way, for the sake of a visa, Xavier gets hitched to a Chinese-American woman.

Meeting an old friend after a long time apart can be a fraught affair. Can you pick up where you left off? Will the conversation still flow easily? Have they changed? Have you?
In Before Midnight (2013), it was a pleasure meeting Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) again and seeing where they were nine years after Before Sunset (2004) and 18 after Before Sunrise (1995).
Add to that list of happy reunions writer-director Cedric Klapisch’s Chinese Puzzle. We first met Xavier in The Spanish Apartment (2002), a young Frenchman in Barcelona on the brink of adult and working life and figuring his way forward with the help of a group of friends from all over Europe.
In Russian Dolls (2005), the setting moved to St Petersburg where Xavier and his friends fall in and out of love.
And now, pushing 40, he is at yet another crossroads as life takes him to bustling Chinatown in New York and he has to take stock of his relationships with his ex-partner, children, friends and old lover, while keeping his publisher in Paris happy.
Romain Duris has shown his versatility as an actor, including his turn as a thug in the compelling The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), but he will always be remembered for playing Xavier.
He brings an easy charm to the highly self-aware and articulate character, someone who can be indecisive and passive at times, but ultimately has his heart in the right place.
The other actors slip easily into their roles as well, from Audrey Tautou (Amelie, 2001) as the older and wiser Martine to Cecile de France (Hereafter, 2010) as the butch Isabelle, settling down with a partner and baby and yet still behaving irresponsibly like a child.
Whatever their flaws and foibles, it is clear that Klapisch has great affection for this group of friends.
Apart from depicting their relationships with one another with honesty, warmth and gentle humour, he also tackles bigger themes of globalisation and culture through the trajectory of the three films.
There is a playful visual flair in Chinese Puzzle that elegantly conveys the frenetic vibe of New York City and lends the film an engaging energy of its own. It all culminates in a welcome bit of farce as the various plot situations all come colliding together.
Life can be complicated and never linear, as Xavier grouses, but he and his friends have also shown us that it can be a glorious mess filled with laughter, light and love.
(ST)

Love Lesson
Diana Wang
While Taiwan’s Diana Wang made it only to the final 42 on the first season of talent show Chinese Idol earlier this year, she impressed label Warner Music Taiwan enough to be offered a contract.
And the newcomer has since made quite a splash with her debut album as Love Lesson hit the No. 1 spot on the authoritative G-Music album chart.
But I am not quite feeling the love, even though a fair bit of the material here revolves around the topic, from ballad Too Young To Love to the emo title track.
Her voice is pleasant enough, but not particularly distinctive. The same goes for the material.
What leaves more of an impression are the upbeat Armoured Wizard and the sole English track, her cover of feted indie act Bon Iver’s Skinny Love.
Her take is a glossier pop version of the haunting and angry original. But the power of the song is such that it is easily the most memorable number here.
(ST)

The White Storm
Benny Chan
The story: Tin (Sean Lau Ching Wan), Wai (Nick Cheung) and Chow (Louis Koo) are three friends who grew up together and then signed up to be cops. Tin rises through the ranks and is senior to Wai, while Chow has to tough it out as an undercover mole for a drug lord. As they seek to bring down kingpin Eight-faced Buddha (Lo Hoi Pang) who operates in Thailand, friendships and loyalties are tested.

Oh no, not another drug movie, was my first thought.
Louis Koo played a weaselly drug peddler earlier this year in Drug War while Sean Lau Ching Wan and Nick Cheung have been on both sides of the cop-crook divide in other films such as Overheard (2009) and Nightfall (2012).
They have even teamed up in various combinations, though this marks the first time all three actors are in a film together.
But despite my initial reservations, The White Storm turned out to be a crackerjack of a movie which managed to be surprising in a well-worn genre.
It could have been another generic drug bust movie, but director and co-writer Benny Chan (New Police Story, 2004) ups the stakes by grounding the film with strong characters and extreme moral dilemmas.
The three seasoned actors inhabit their characters easily and also play off one another well.
Koo is the frustrated undercover mole, Chow, who is tired of living a double life. He lives in fear of picking up the wrong mobile phone and saying the wrong thing and just wants to be with his pregnant wife.
Lau is his superior, Tin, who is caught between wanting to protect his friend and pressure from his higher-ups to go after bigger fish – which means that Chow would have to remain as a mole.
And Cheung is the peace-maker, Wai, sandwiched between the other two and trying his best to keep their friendship from fraying as well as the mission from going under.
The film throws up some interesting questions.
What does it really take to motivate an undercover cop to stick it out?
Is a sense of duty enough or does there need to be something more personal given the sacrifices one is asked to make?
Later on, one of the three friends is put in an impossible situation of choosing who to save and, hence, who to sacrifice. Better yet, the movie examines the consequences of that fateful decision and how things sour after that.
Chan also packs in bursts of adrenaline rush in the action sequences ranging from a showdown in an abandoned building to an attack by helicopters in Thailand.
A pity then that the packed-with-gunplay finale is stretched out too long.
Right up till then though, the film has you in a firm grip.
(ST)

Midsummer's Equation
Hiroshi Nishitani
The story: The brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama) goes to the seaside town of Harigaura to attend a seabed mining plan debate. He stays at an inn and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a little boy Kyohei (Hikaru Yamazaki), who later helps him with the suspicious death of another lodger, retired cop Tsukahara (Sansei Shiomi). A vocal opponent to the mining plan is Narumi (Anne), Kyohei’s cousin and daughter of the inn’s owners, Setsuko (Jun Fubuki) and Shigeharu Kawahata (Gin Maeda). By the end of summer, everybody’s lives would have changed irrevocably. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by author Keigo Higashino.

The character of Manabu Yukawa, also known as detective Galileo, is a one-man pop culture cottage industry in Japan. The books by mystery writer Keigo Higashino are bestsellers and they are the basis of a hit TV series in 2007, and a second season this year. On the big screen, there was the excellent Suspect X (2008). So Midsummer’s Equation is a long-awaited follow-up film outing.
As with Suspect X, there is a central murder mystery set up. But what distinguishes the films are the fact that they are not just interested in the “how”, but the “why”.
Director Hiroshi Nishitani has once again delivered a puzzler that engages the mind and moves the heart.
Central to the stories is the coolly brilliant Yukawa (Fukuyama), whose unflappable nature and rational thinking make him great at deductive reasoning. “Truth is a map that teaches us about the world,” he says.
It also makes him something of a cold fish.
What is fun in Midsummer’s Equation is that we get to see a different side to him. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with Kyohei (a naturalistic Hakaru Yamazaki) – a boy who does not give him hives on contact – and even teaches him about the value of science through a very cool rocket project.
Incidentally, actor-singer Fukuyama was also very good acting alongside another young co-star in Hirokazu Koreeda’s family drama Like Father, Like Son (2013).
Meanwhile, the other pieces of the puzzle are put into place. What is the secret shared between mother Setsuko and daughter Narumi? What is their connection to a murder which took place in 1998? Who was the man arrested for that murder and why is there a retired cop sniffing about the place now?
Compared to Suspect X, the case here is a little less satisfying because it is not as surprising or clever.
But Midsummer’s Equation still delivers when it comes to delving into people’s motivation and the consequences of their actions. Just when the case seems all wrapped up, more revelations follow as the film teases apart the secrets and lies and anguish that have been buried within a family over the years.
And Yukawa’s friendship with young Kyohei pays off too, in a beautifully low-key scene at the end.
If you are looking for a humane murder mystery to mull over, Midsummer’s Equation could well be your answer.
(ST)

Conversations With
Ruth Kueo
The debut EP from 22-year-old local singer Ruth Kueo is a promising charmer. Styling-wise, she goes for young and hipster, but the songs suggest a greater maturity.
Opening track Wait is breezy fare that is easy to like. She sings brightly and hopefully: “There are obstacles on the way and unhappiness sometimes/ But believe there’s a Mr Right/If true love comes/ Don’t reject him at arm’s length.”
Ballad There’s A Love and the mid-tempo Metamorphosis showcase her chops as a singer as she navigates the emotional journeys confidently.
She wrote all of the lyrics and had a hand in composing all the music – a good sign that she has more to say in conversations to come.
(ST)

Rigor Mortis
Juno Mak
The story: A former actor in vampire movies, Chin (Chin Siu Ho) moves into a derelict public housing block. Washed-up and alienated from his wife and son, he plans to kill himself in apartment 2442. His attempt is interrupted by the other denizens of the block, from cook/exorcist Yau (Anthony Chan) to kindly old Auntie Mui (Nina Paw) who lives with her husband Uncle Tung (Richard Ng). Chin later meets the distraught Feng (Kara Hui), who keeps hanging around 2442. When evil is awakened, Chin finds himself battling vicious ghosts and a powerful zombie.

The Hong Kong vampire movies of the 1980s such as Mr. Vampire (1985) were often a campy mix of comedy and horror.
Singer-turned-director Juno Mak might have been inspired by them, but Rigor Mortis is a different creature altogether.
His directorial debut not only revives a moribund genre, but it also does so in a way that is unexpected.
For starters, there is an atmosphere of chill and dread that pervades the movie.
From the dreary palette of greys to the oppressive setting in a crumbling building, Mak, who also wrote the script, builds the suspense gradually.
And thanks to great make-up, costumes and some nifty special effects, he manages to pull off some creepy moments – no mean achievement in an age where genuine scares are few and far in between.
Mak’s affection for the genre also comes through in the way the movie is steeped in vampire movie lore and in the gripping action sequences, particularly in the epic showdown between Chin and gang and a powerful zombie.
While movies about ghosts and the undead tend to fall short when it comes to characterisation, Rigor Mortis deftly balances a large ensemble cast and actually makes the various stories mean something.
Auntie Mui (an excellent Nina Paw) and Uncle Tung (Richard Ng) are a couple relying on each other in their old age. They bicker sweetly and she is forever helping out the other residents with little favours.
It makes the horror of what subsequently unfolds more powerful because you come to care for Mui in particular.
Feng, meanwhile, is trapped in her own private nightmare and only her son, Xiaobai, keeps her tethered to this world.
And then there is Chin playing Chin, a washed-up actor facing all manner of evil even as he battles with demons of his own.
The world of Rigor Mortis is a dark one, but Mak finds moments of kindness and tenderness in it, and handles them with an effectively light touch.
And then right at the end, he delivers an enigmatic ending that will keep you guessing.
Is Rigor Mortis a meta movie about the hopping vampire genre? Or did you just witness a distinctly Hong Kong version of hell?
What it is, without a doubt, is a gonzo piece of film-making that is Hong Kong cinema at its best.
(ST)

Beautiful World
Where Chou Hui
In the early noughties, Taiwanese singer Where Chou Hui’s sweetly mellifluous voice fronted hit ballads such as Really Wish To Love You Well. After all these years, she still sounds great and there is perhaps a touch more depth and maturity in her singing here and on her last album Own Room (2011).
The title track Beautiful World points to a rocky journey but there is also a show of optimism here. She sings: “Even if there are misunderstandings and arguments/When I turn around, I still wish to hold hands and share everything.”
Apart from her trademark balladry, Chou also dips her toes into dance territory here. It is not that Who Cares About Your Love or Thank You, Liar are terrible tracks, but Chou just comes across as Jolin Tsai-lite on them. It can be a beautiful world even without a jolt of electronica.
(ST)

Commitment
Park Hong Soo
The story: After his father is killed on a mission in South Korea, North Koreans Li Myung Hoon (Choi Seung Hyun, better known as T.O.P from boyband Big Bang), and his younger sister Hye In (Kim Yoo Jung) are sent to a prison labour camp. To save their lives, he becomes a spy in the South in the guise of a high-school student and becomes friends with outcast Lee Hye In (Han Ye Ri), who shares his sister’s name.

See T.O.P run, see T.O.P fight, see T.O.P look cool riding a motorbike. Fans of the dashing K-popster will be thrilled just to have their idol front and centre on the screen.
Alas, this is a feature film and not a music video, which means that attention also has to be paid to the pesky attendant details of story and character development.
For a spy thriller, Commitment is shockingly boring. Stretched to an overlong two hours, it fails to build up much excitement or tension or even make one care very much for the characters.
The high school scenes sit oddly with the ones of T.O.P getting all assassin-y and could have been played up for greater contrast. It could have been fun to delve into how Myung Hoon balances hitting the books by day and killing off spooks at night.
But in the hands of debut feature director Park Hong Soo, the scenes in school feel perfunctory, with the workman-like purpose of having Myung Hoon making his sole friend.
Meanwhile, the action scenes are linked to some far-removed power struggle in North Korea. It is confusing to know who is on which side, not that it seems to matter very much in the end.
T.O.P does have some natural charisma and he can emote – to a certain extent. Myung Hoon is a young man pushed to the brink but you do not feel the extremity of his situation.
And maybe it is a North Korean thing, but his relationship with his sister borders on being too close for comfort.
Perhaps the film is really an experiment to test the commitment of the K-pop star’s fans.
(ST)

Closed Circuit
John Crowley
The story: The crowded Borough market in London is bombed and Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) is arrested as the primary suspect. After his first lawyer dies, Martin Rose (Eric Bana) and Claudia Simmons-Howe (Rebecca Hall) are picked to represent Farroukh in court. The more they delve into it, the less straightforward the case seems.

The argument that unpleasant things have to be done in the name of safety and security is one that cannot be dismissed easily. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, this is an issue that has been wrestled with on shows such as the ongoing television drama Homeland.
In this film, the United Kingdom’s MI5 agency is peopled by such a shady bunch that the idea of them given carte blanche to do whatever they need to in the name of national security is downright scary. One of those behaving like a thug is played by Riz Ahmed, recently seen in the more nuanced political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013).
It all begins to seem rather far-fetched, but for a good while Closed Circuit is a legal mystery thriller that reels you in.
Two lawyers have to be assigned to the case because the suspect has to stand trial in both open court and closed-door proceedings due to the classified nature of some evidence. According to the rules, Martin and Claudia are not supposed to contact each other during the trial.
Adding to the complicated structure of the case is the fraught relationship between the two as they had had an affair.
Eric Bana (Romulus, My Father, 2007) and Rebecca Hall (The Town, 2010) are both engaging actors who keep the film grounded even as the cloak-and-dagger elements pile up.
And while the truth regarding Farroukh’s role in the bombing does propel the movie, in truth, he is only a minor character seen in a few scenes. Instead, director John Crowley (Boy A, 2007) puts Martin and Claudia in peril.
In order to wrap things up in a fairly brisk 96 minutes, there are some convenient lapses and loopholes in the story but at least you are kept guessing as to whether treachery, or justice, will triumph in the end.
(ST)

Friends
Anthony Neely
After the invigorating pop-rock of his last album, Wake Up (2012), American-born Taiwan-based singer Anthony Neely’s (right) new album feels less vital.
Even the title, Friends, seems a little bland.
Good thing his lightly raspy voice is still engaging on tracks such as opener Everything Is Love.
I am not too enamoured of the repetitive chorus though: “It’s all because of love, that’s love/Can’t let go, except for love, it’s still love/If you don’t love, are not loved/This little existence won’t exist.”
Better yet is Faithball, the theme song of the
2013 Taiwanese baseball movie of the same name starring Neely.
A direct translation of the Chinese title would be The Weight Of Sweat and the song makes strong use of sports imagery.
Over a catchy riff, Neely sings: “But my sweat, has weight, burnt into tomorrow’s sunlight/ Everytime I fall, I get closer to the earth of dreams, take a bow and raise the bat again.”
The slower songs do not leave as strong an impression. Here’s hoping he hits a homerun the next time out.
(ST)

REAL
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The story: Through a procedure called “sensing”, Koichi (Takeru Satoh) is able to enter the subconscious of his lover, Atsumi (Haruka Ayase), and interact with her. She has been comatose since an apparent suicide attempt and he wants to find out what happened and to try to wake her up. Based on the novel A Perfect Day For Plesiosaur (2011).

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (Tokyo Sonata, 2008) Real is a psychological thriller that reveals its mystery slowly.
For a while, it is content to explore the procedure of sensing.
The audience is eased into it from Koichi’s (Takeru Satoh, right, with Haruka Ayase) point of view as he experiences it for the first time.
Plugged into a machine, his mind enters a space that is their apartment.
But this virtual world is not the same as ours: A pen can float leisurely in space and images of gruesome deaths from Atsumi’s dark manga work flash before Koichi’s eyes.
Plenty of questions are thrown up. Why does she want Koichi to search for an old childhood drawing of a plesiosaur? Who is the soaking wet boy that Koichi keeps seeing or is that some side effect of the sensing?
And is the line between what is real and what is virtual being blurred? At one point, Atsumi says: “It’s all in my mind, right? Anything can happen.”
After a while, you get the feeling that Kurosawa is slowly building up to a twist in the tale. It is not that much of a surprise when it is revealed, but at least it makes some sense.
What happens after that, though, is less persuasive.
Real turns into a kaiju (Japanese monster movie genre) flick as Koichi and Atsumi are pursued by a p***ed-off plesiosaur. And the couple have to uncover some incident that took place on Hikone island, where they grew up.
While Ayase (Cyborg She, 2008) has to grapple with the role of the more opaque Atsumi, Satoh (Rurouni Kenshin, 2012) gets to bring a sense of urgency to the role of Koichi.
But because much of the story takes place in a nebulous subconscious world where characters can be hard to read, one feels emotionally distanced from what is unfolding. Maybe this is another of those stories which work better on the page than on the screen.
(ST)

3 Peas In A Pod
Michelle Chong
The story: Singaporean Penny (Jae Liew), Korean Peter (Alexander Lee Eusebio) and Taiwanese Perry (Calvin Chen) are schoolmates at an Australian university who decide to take a road trip together just before graduation. With Penny in love with Peter and Perry having a soft spot for Penny, things eventually come to a head during the journey and no one is left unscathed.

The trailers for 3 Peas In A Pod largely suggest a light-hearted romantic comedy. There is a classic love triangle in which the object of one’s affection is eyeing someone else and the scenario plays out with humour and some choice dramatic moments.
It is a reasonable expectation especially since writer-director Michelle Chong’s debut film Already Famous (2011) was also a light-hearted comedy.
While kudos are due Chong for not treading the same path here, Peas ends up being terribly convoluted in a way that is utterly frustrating instead of clever and satisfying.
In the final act of the film, revelations come tumbling out that cast everything that happened before in a different light. When done well, as in the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense (1999), such reversals make you want to rewatch the film.
Unfortunately, here, it just feels as though the earlier part of the movie was just one giant sleight of hand, a deliberate act of misdirection.
It did not help that Peter was a self-absorbed, self-serving and possibly manic depressive chap who treats Penny (newcomer Jae Liew) as a doormat and is constantly telling his friends to “speaka Engrishi”. And Perry is largely a cipher until the very end. These are not exactly roles to warm to.
A graduation road trip is a momentous occasion, poised as it is between the world of school and friends and the working adult life to come. But while the characters mouth words to that effect, the impact is not quite there.
The supposed simmering desire is also handled in an oddly chaste fashion. If it is a road trip movie with an honest exploration of attraction and sexuality that you are looking for, try Mexican drama Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) instead.
The casting for 3 Peas was off too.
Alexander Lee Eusebio, though a former member of K-pop boyband U-Kiss, is unconvincing as swoonworthy hunk Peter. In fact, Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit member Calvin Chen, playing Perry, was clearly more buff. This made a scene in which the other two are surprised by Perry’s physique seem downright silly.
And fans hoping to see Chong in action as an actress will have to be content with a cameo of her as a hotel staff with a thick Aussie twang.
The big winner here would have to be Tourism Australia, which gets a feature-length advertisement packed with postcard-perfect sun-drenched vistas.
(ST)

JJ Lin Timeline World Tour
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday

Surviving 10 years in the music industry is no mean feat. And what has made the journey more difficult for local singer-songwriter JJ Lin is that he has had to accomplish this mostly away from home, in Taiwan.
Two years after his last concert here, the boyish-looking star returns home to mark this milestone in his career. It was also an opportunity to express his gratitude as he thanked his family for all their support over the years.
He said to his parents: “Thank you for the extraordinary love every time I’ve been back and I hope I have not let you down.” He also gave a shoutout to his paternal grandmother, who died from liver cancer while he was in the midst of his Taipei gigs in July.
Clearly, he relished being back and early on, he teased his fans in Singlish after they had just cheered him: “How can like that? You call this loud?”
So what if, unlike Taipei, we did not get to see him serenading singer Hebe Tien?
We got to see Lin, 32, and his elder brother Eugene sing together on the heartwarming ballad Fly Back In Time. They were both enrolled in music company Ocean Butterflies’ Very Singers’ Training Course back in 1999, though Eugene later went into banking.
Lin would go on to release his debut album Music Voyager in 2003 and win the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Best New Artist.
Keeping things in the Singapore family of singers was Lin’s second guest star. The capacity crowd of 8,000 went wild when Stefanie Sun appeared in a short dress to duet with him on She Says. The lyricist of the title track of his 2011 album was none other than Sun.
She joked that she had worn sexy singer Jolin Tsai’s dress to the concert and kept singing his praises as a “sweet guy”.
Another highlight of the show was Lin’s tribute to the late king of pop, Michael Jackson. He even tipped a hat to Jackson’s iconic look by wearing a red military-style jacket. On a stage that was filled with water, Lin danced up a storm and slinked his way through Billie Jean.
The jacket later came off to reveal a black singlet underneath, which he eventually ripped off to the delight of his fans.
It did take a while though for the concert to really kick into gear.
Lin first appeared looking like a futuristic space cadet with a fatal weakness for bling.
True, there were hits peppered along the way including Cao Cao, Never Learn and a fan favourite, Soy Milk And Dough Sticks.
His voice was also generally in fine form, going from tremulous and tender on the ballads to packing a punch on the rock numbers such as The Dark Knight.
And yet, there was not enough momentum built. In part, the intermittent video clips centring on aspects of time did not seem to have too much to do with what was unfolding on stage.
Still, by the time the encore rolled around, Lin was working up a party mood in the hall with energetic tracks You N Me and We Together. The almost three-hour-long concert closed with the groovy hip-hop of High Fashion and his monster hit ballad, River South.
Apart from his parents, brother, aunts and uncles, Lin also has an extended family of fans who have been with him all the way.
On a heartfelt rendition of Remember, a ballad he had written for Taiwanese diva A-mei, the entire stadium of spectators sang along. And when he crooned the final line – “We hold hands together and say we’ll walk to the end together” – his family of fans cheered in approval.
(ST)

Angel vs Devil
Tanya Chua
On her last album Sing It Out Of Love (2011), home-grown singer-songwriter Tanya Chua dealt with the death of her father in 2011 from the side effects of medication for Parkinson’s disease.
This follow-up to that Golden Melody Award- winning work finds her in a conflicted place emotionally – and that is good news for the record.
The album’s title suggest two extremes. On the one hand, there are the ballads with their bruised vulnerability. On the other hand, some of the numbers adopt a more cavalier, devil-may-care attitude.
Love Song To Myself seems defiant, but breaks down in the swirling chorus: “In this calm, blue quandary/I’m shouting and crying hysterically”.
Meanwhile, A Hundred Thousand Teardrops effectively uses hyperbole: “We accumulate a hundred thousand teardrops in our lifetime/Thought that if I finished crying it all, I could exchange bitterness for a good ending.”
No surprise that the lyrics are by Chua’s frequent collaborator Xiaohan, who has professed that she loves to cry.
But the album is not just drenched in tears. On the laidback Pheromones, she teases, “Want to commit a crime for me?” while Easy Come Easy Go with rapper MC HotDog has a more relaxed attitude towards love.
The rock-flavoured title track marries contrasting feelings and finds her confessing: “Afraid of losing love and afraid of being loved.”
There is no need for such hesitation here. With a rich range of musical styles from Chua and engaging lyric contributions from the likes of sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng, Taiwan’s David Ke and Chua herself, Angel Vs Devil is easy to embrace.
(ST)

Baby Blues
Leong Po Chih
Here is a home-buying tip that will save you plenty of grief and trouble: When you come across a creepy- looking doll left behind by its previous owner, do not hang on to the property. If you are rich enough to buy a house, you are rich enough to get a brand- new creepy-looking doll.
Unfortunately, newlyweds songwriter Hao (Raymond Lam) and blogger Tian Qing (Janelle Sing) ignore that tip. They also pay no heed to the repeated dire warnings of a homeless man camped outside their huge house.
Tian Qing becomes pregnant with twins but one of the boys dies during birth. She then starts treating the doll as a newborn – surely that goes beyond post-natal depression.
It is the doll working its bad juju, which it likes to do while spinning round and pointing its hand out. Presumably, this is to take advantage of the 3-D effects.
Rather than raising scares, though, this infantile movie is likely to induce yawns instead.
(ST)

Enough Said
Nicole Holofcener
The story: Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a single mum who works as a house-call masseuse. She meets divorced father Albert (James Gandolfini) at a party and they begin dating. At the same party, she also meets Marianne, a new client who becomes a friend. Things get a little complicated when Eva realises that Marianne (Catherine Keener) is Albert’s ex-wife.

James Gandolfini will forever be associated with the acclaimed crime drama The Sopranos (1999-2007). His turn as the self-doubting and therapy-seeking mob boss Tony Soprano earned him three Emmy statuettes and paved the way for anti-heroes down the road such as Breaking Bad’s Walter White.
Sadly, he died from a heart attack at the age of 51 in June.
Beyond the Mafia series, his range of roles run the gamut from a gay hitman in The Mexican (2001) to an impulsive Wild Thing in the fantasy Where The Wild Things Are (2009).
One of his last films is this sweet and lovely romance which casts him in a very different light and adds to his rich body of work.
He smiles a lot here as Albert and his eyes crinkle and disappear charmingly but it is not exactly attraction at first sight for Eva. In fact, her early description of him to close friend Sarah (Toni Collette) is: “He’s kinda fat.”
Rather than a romantic comedy which dumbs itself down with cliched set-ups and forced repartee, Enough Said feels like an honest exploration of what happens when two adults are tentatively attracted to each other and try to sort out their feelings.
There is awkwardness here – do they kiss or not after the first date – as well as tenderness. There is a scene in which they peer into each other’s mouths that feels more intimate than most movie sex scenes.
Gandolfini’s wonderfully low-key and sunny performance is well-matched by Julia Louis- Dreyfus. Best known for her television work on comedies such as Seinfeld (1989-1998) and Veep (2012 to present), she dials down her comic exuberance for a more nuanced performance that remains very funny.
Eva is all too believably human and flawed. While she means well, she is not the most sensitive person when it comes to respecting boundaries. And so, she dishes out sex advice to her teenage daughter’s friend, makes fun of Albert for his inability to whisper (an admittedly odd trait) and, worst of all, she ends up befriending his ex and hiding it from him.
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener has worked on TV for shows such as comedy Parks And Recreation as well as films such as Lovely & Amazing (2001), an observant drama about female relationships.
Apart from finding the humour and stresses in a burgeoning relationship, she also captures the poignancy and scariness of looking for love at a certain stage in life. And she does not shy away from the difficult things people say to each other.
When Albert tells Eva, “You broke my heart and I’m too old for that s***,” his hurt is real and palpable.
A great cast, a sensitive script and an abundance of heart – enough said.
(ST)

Autumn: Stories
sodagreen
Finally, harvest season is here.
After releasing the luminous Daylight Of Spring and the briskly rocking Summer/Fever in 2009, sodagreen’s ambitious four seasons project hit a road block. Two of the feted indie band’s six members had to fulfil their military service obligations and it was only last year that they were back at full strength again.
In keeping with the season, the mood on this album is autumnal as summer slips away and leaves begin to fall. The use of traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu and flute lend a sense of melancholy to the record.
Lead vocalist and songwriter Ching-feng’s pristine voice shimmers and aches on When I’m Alone: “When I’m alone, it’s like I’ve dropped into a deep ravine/When I’m alone, it’s like the whole world’s lies have been laid bare.”
The light may be fading as the days grow shorter but that does not mean it is just gloominess ahead.
The Gleaners offers up this intriguing imagery of life’s cyclical nature: “Burning my childhood, burnt my youth, burn out my sunset years/Until we are asleep in the earth, continue to be buried as future roots.”
For a change, bassist Claire takes over vocal duties on the lighthearted Idle Wings, while drummer Wei has a turn at the mic on the more compelling We Walked A Light Year.
There are rich pickings here to slowly savour while we wait for Winter to approach.
(ST)

Passion
Brian De Palma
The story: Advertising executive Christine (Rachel McAdams) always gets what she wants, be it in the boardroom or bedroom. When her subordinate Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) shows her up over an ad campaign and sleeps with her lover Dirk (Paul Anderson), Christine goes all out to take her down. Driven to the brink, Isabelle starts popping pills. Things escalate to the point of murder. A remake of the French psychological thriller Love Crime (2010).

Canadian actress Rachel McAdams has often been cast in the sweetheart role, from her breakout film romantic drama The Notebook (2004) to the recent romantic comedy About Time (2013).
But she actually first came to attention for playing a malicious queen bee in the comedy Mean Girls (2004). Here, she slips easily into the role of the scheming, sexually adventurous and vindictive Christine.
She is unapologetic when stealing credit for Isabelle’s idea and adds: “You have talent, I made the best use of it.”
Later, she kisses Isabelle in the back of a car and tells her that she loves her. How very European.
Noomi Rapace’s Isabelle is harder to read. She is Christine’s subordinate and is clearly envious of her life. To some extent, she falls for Dirk precisely because he is Christine’s lover.
Before the film ventures down the path of dark obsession trod by Single White Female (1992), however, it veers off in a different direction.
The undercurrent of rivalry between the two women surges into outright animosity as Christine publicly humiliates Isabelle and pushes her to the brink.
Director Brian De Palma starts using a different lighting scheme and, suddenly, every scene has striped shadows. Then he goes for a split-screen effect to depict Isabelle at the opera and Christine at home.
All of these signal that something momentous is about to happen, but it is still not fully persuasive when the film suddenly turns into a murder-mystery.
It is also rather trying when De Palma uses the cliched waking-from-a-dream device, not once, but twice, even if he does add a twist to it.
The director is best known for his suspense and thriller films from Carrie (1976) to Scarface (1983) to Mission: Impossible (1996). He has also helmed some duds from the high-profile adaptation The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990) to the crime flick The Black Dahlia (2006).
Passion, belonging to the latter category, is unlikely to win him much love.
(ST)

S.H.E 2gether 4ever World Tour 2013
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday
It was a night when tears flowed freely.
After a filming accident in October 2010 left S.H.E member Selina Jen with terrible burns, she faced a long road to recovery.
In November last year, the Taiwanese pop trio finally released their 11th studio album Blossomy. And with Jen, Hebe Tien and Ella Chen together on stage once more, S.H.E’s comeback is complete.
Jen had to undergo months of physiotherapy before she could even stand and walk. Last Saturday night, she danced and pranced about and commanded the stage with ease and the capacity crowd of 8,000 cheered her on.
The emotions got to her early on during her solo segment when she was singing Dreams. She started crying and could not continue for a while. When the song ended, she said: “I’m sorry, that’s the earliest I’ve cried while singing that song in concert.”
Their world tour started in Taipei in June and has taken them to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau as well as several cities in China. Singapore is the last leg of their tour.
After joking that fans could listen to the complete version of Dreams on disc, she thanked her supporters.
“I want to thank my fans for loving my flaws and my round face. When I was injured, your encouragement brought me back from the jaws of death.
“I couldn’t laugh, couldn’t run and jump, but I can do all that now. As long we’re alive, there’s hope, so never give up.”
Jen was later moved to tears again when Chen and Tien surprised her with an early birthday gift.
Jen, who turns 32 on Thursday, was handed a fake award for best television host from the other two. She took the opportunity to thank the important people in her life, from her husband and family to the doctors, who took care of her.
The concert did not just revolve around her though.
For her solo segment, Chen, who got married in May last year, laid to rest her former tomboyish image with a flapper-inspired gold number that showed off her sexy back.
She teased at one point that she had good news to share before adding: “I’m not pregnant yet.”
Among the three, Tien is the one who is a bona fide solo star with two well- received albums to her name. She performed Love and It’s OK To Be Lonely off the album To Hebe (2010) in a bohemian looking white dress with cascading hair to match.
While she was the most reserved on stage, it was also clear that the three women share a very close bond. And from their first album Girl’s Dorm (2001) till now, they have been through thick and thin together.
And through it all, they have been consistent hit-makers. They covered a good deal of ground at the gig from early favourite Underaged Lover to the Jay Chou-composed Tropical Rainforest to the playful Miss Universe.
And with two of the members now married, they seem to be more at ease with themselves and one another. Maybe it is because they no longer have to worry about being sweet young things and maintaining a dream-girl image. They joked about farting and boob size and Chen even kissed Tien and Jen in a bit of tomfoolery.
After all the tears that were shed, the three hour-plus-long concert ended close to midnight on a celebratory note.
The encore kicked off with Blossomy and they sang: “Finally, those you miss reunite/ Finally, all the injuries have healed/The flowers are blooming again, finally/My heart is again full of courage.”
They might have taken the words right out of their fans’ mouths.
(ST)

A Low-Key Life
Sandee Chan
On her last album I Love You, John (2011), Taiwanese singer- songwriter-arranger-producer Sandee Chan showed a more playful side.
Her new work, A Low-Key Life, though, harks back to the darker-themed electronica of If There Is One Thing That Is Important (2008).
While she previously purred about loving John, here, she touches on infidelity on the track, Affair. She sings tenderly in the mid-tempo number: “Oh, we both know in our hearts who is more pitiful/Since it’s Sunday, hastily say a few words of penitence to myself.”
She ponders on Christine how deep love can be: “I shouldn’t fantasise that two people means twice the stability/Winning your heart doesn’t mean your soul is mine.”
It is not just romantic entanglements that occupy her. On Fickle, she has even weightier matters in mind: “When life and death are fickle, we need to rethink everything/Unease and reality are written into a beautiful antithesis.”
The music and vocals are soothing, but there is nothing low-key about the emotions and ideas.
(ST)

Carrie
Kimberly Peirce
The story: Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a misfit at high school and she is taunted by the other girls when she gets her first period in the showers. It seems too good to be true when a popular jock asks her to the prom and her deeply religious mother Margaret (Julianne Moore) warns: “They’re all going to laugh at you.” When they do, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic powers to horrific effect. This is the third film adaptation of the 1974 Stephen King novel of the same name.

Many a prom has been ruined by a dubious hairdo or what-was-I-thinking fashion choice. But in the history of disastrous proms, none can top the one in Carrie.
Even if you did not watch the classic 1976 version, you might have come across the unforgettable image of Sissy Spacek drenched in blood from head to toe in her prom dress. There was also a film made for television in 2002.
If not, the trailer helpfully sums up the entire arc of the latest film. The finale is a messy bloodbath in which Carrie unleashes her powers.
The problem is that the lead-up to this all-too- expected ending is simply not very interesting.
Director Kimberly Peirce is best known for the gender-bending romantic drama Boys Don’t Cry (1999), which won Hilary Swank a Best Actress Oscar. But here, she seems to have little idea of how to move the story forward. Everything is just too one-note.
Margaret is a sexually uptight religious nutjob and you know she is crazy because her hair looks like it is in desperate need of some tender loving conditioning care.
Her idea of mothering is shutting Carrie up in the “prayer closet” and filling her head with dark talk of sin.
Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right, 2010) makes her creepy, but there is something almost cartoonish about the role.
The rest of the characters are pretty much just plot devices from b****y mean girl Chris (Portia Doubleday) to Sue (Gabriella Wilde), who tries to make amends by getting her boyfriend to ask Carrie out.
At least Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass 2, 2013) makes you care for Carrie as she blossoms from awkward to pretty, and you just wish she could be freed from her mother’s clutches.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the film is that it barely registers on the scare scale. Maybe telekinesis is too tame in this day and age.
Flying books and cracking mirrors do not offer much thrill when special effects are routinely employed to more dramatic effect in films these days.
Even when the ante is upped at the end with half the school getting butchered, the outcome still falls short of being truly terrifying.
(ST)

Escape Plan
Mikael Hafstrom
The story: Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is a security expert who escapes from prisons to point out the flaws in them. For his latest assignment, he is planted inside a top-secret facility. Ray soon realises he has been incarcerated for good and will need the help of fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to make his escape.

The action genre does not seem like a particularly kind one for older actors, given its rigorous physical demands.
And yet, SylvesterStallone, 67, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, 66, continue to shoot them up in cinemas as though it were the 1980s.
Recent titles featuring them such as The Expendables (2010) and The Last Stand (2013) served up action with a self-aware tone which poked fun at their ageing with references to aches and pains.
There are no such subtleties here.
Escape Plan is essentially a B-grade thriller with a straightforward high concept: Watch Sly and Arnie bust out of a state-of-the-art prison, which is as high concept as it gets for these two.
The cells are transparent and the inmates’ every move is monitored by cameras.
There are no openings to the outside world and they have no idea if it is day or night. The guards are masked and heavily armed. In the cramped isolation cells, they get blinded by blazing artificial light.
Yet there is never any doubt Arnie and Sly’s characters will escape. Still, there is a certain pleasure in watching how the carefully set-up hurdles are overcome one by one.
Just do not quibble too much over the plot details.
One of the challenges facing Sly, as security expert Ray Breslin, is that he has to figure out where the prison is located.
So he manages to improvise a sextant from a pair of spectacles and a pen which, miraculously enough, provides a detailed and accurate reading even though he had nothing to calibrate the rough-hewn instrument with.
This should definitely make it to the list of skills every camper needs.
What was also fun was watching the two veteran stars play off each other as they team up against the silkily menacing warden played by Jim Caviezel, currently one of the good guys on TV’s surveillance thriller Person Of Interest.
Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (The Rite, 2011) does a decent job with the pacing. He is also canny enough to give fans what they want, which means Sly and Arnie get to throw punches and also mow down the baddies with machine guns at some point.
It means you will not have to plot your own escape from the cinema hall before the movie is over.
(ST)

Fragile
Tizzy Bac
On their last album The Tell-Tale Heart (2011), Taiwanese indie band Tizzy Bac looked to master of the macabre, writer Edgar Allan Poe, for inspiration. This time around, it is the fragility of life that serves as muse.
There is a sense of urgency on synth-pop number One By One Oh We’re Gonna Die as lyricist and vocalist Chen Hui-ting warns “Don’t take it for granted and squander your youth and entire life” and “The colour of the story in the end will depend on the choices you’ve made”.
Existential angst is explored on This Is Because We Can Feel Pain: “Sometimes, standing in the face of terror/We need to get a grip and push on forward.”
The band are no one-note doomsday purveyors, though. Fragile is a rich and epic album that celebrates life as well.
Against a lush orchestral arrangement, gorgeous opener Tonight, Tonight, Tonight holds out an irresistible offer: “We can run away tonight, tonight, tonight/In the darkest night, the stars remain brilliant.”
Its sentiment is echoed in the closing number Armstrong’s One Small Step (I’ll See You In My Dream): “No matter how clamorous the world/Lift your head and you’ll reach the universe/In that vastness, I am a shimmer of light.”
May Tizzy Bac shine on.
(ST)

Plush
Catherine Hardwicke
The story: Plush frontwoman Hayley (Emily Browning) copes with the death of her brother and bandmate by writing songs about him. But the response to Plush’s new material is tepid. She works with replacement guitarist Enzo (Xavier Samuel) to give the songs some edge and their growing intimacy eventually turns sexual. Hayley, who is married with two young children, starts to pull back, but Enzo has other ideas.

This could have been a kinky little movie about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. But director Catherine Hardwicke tries to pack in too much and keeps shoving in the trappings of a thriller here.
Musical cues suggest something ominous is about to happen – and then nothing does. It gets a bit tiring after a few false starts.
For a while, Hayley’s downward spiral keeps one hooked. She might be married with children, but her behaviour is anything but wifely or maternal. Touring again to support a new album, she slips back into a hedonistic rock ’n’ roll lifestyle of boozing and sexual trysts with the replacement guitarist.
As played by Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, 2011), Hayley is largely a babydoll-faced cipher. Mostly, she exhibits questionable judgment. She even agrees to film an uncomfortably suggestive music video at her home, in the presence of her husband and children.
Given that the film is helmed by Hardwicke, the rather passive female character is something of a surprise. After all, the American film-maker is better known for films with stronger and more proactive women such as in youth drama Thirteen (2003) and in the fantasy Red Riding Hood (2011).
Instead, Enzo is the more fascinating role here, baiting both men and women with his bad boy rocker vibe. One could well imagine Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 2010) as the charismatic guitarist of some dark indie band.
Like a singer going disastrously off-key in a crescendo, the movie goes all haywire in its final act. The consequences of Hayley’s reckless behaviour come home to roost in a spectacularly ludicrous fashion.
It is so campy and over the top that you could end up laughing out loud. That is not a good sign when the film in question is not a comedy.
(ST)

Distance Of Love
Tai Ai-ling
Taiwan’s Tai Ai-ling has had enough of tears. The singer, also known as Princess Ai, has made a career out of torch songs that plumb the depths of a broken heart on albums such as Tone (2010).
This time around, it is a cheerier-looking Tai that greets us on the lyric booklet. There are other breakthroughs as well: Searching For Right Person has her contributing lyrics for the first time. She sings: “Don’t come too close, leave some breathing space/ Be more patient, let me see your manly sincerity.”
The first single Time Of Love is also faster-paced than usual for her. Listen closely, though, and the lyrics are not quite as upbeat as you might imagine: “Men often declare love as an excuse/But in their hearts, they want to be bad.”
Still, she has not ditched emo ballads completely. The title track, for one, will be familiar territory for her fans. She trills in the chorus: “108,000 miles is the distance of love/A passionate past/Whitewashed memories are like paint that’s peeling off.”
Sounds like she is not quite ready to make a clean break with her musical past.
(ST)

Rhythm Of The Rain
Vincent Fang
Mandopop lyricist Vincent Fang would probably never name one of his songs Rhythm Of The Dramatically Convenient Rain, for its literalness would be abhorrent to his lyrical sensibility.
Yet in his directorial debut, he has made an incoherent film which literally features the rain – all the time.
The bland romance between rocker Allen (Alan Ko) and sensitive Yujie (Ginnie Han) is a washout and filled with pointless hurdles. It is a relationship so contrived, it is hard for the audience to feel invested in it even when Allen’s former bandmate Sharon (Vivian Hsu) and roommate Yile (Shi Xialong) complicate the picture.
Emotions, let alone lyricism, are also missing in the segment where Yile accompanies Yujie to Singapore for an important operation – it plays like a promo clip for medical tourism here.
The competition combining rock music, calligraphy and wushu, which Allen and his band take part in, only serves to give cross-disciplinary collaborations a bad name. Perhaps the mash-up might have worked better as lyrics in a song.
The movie ends with a music video that flashes back to Yujie’s first love (who cares?) and a revelation which is meant to feel poignant but merely feels like a pointless cheap trick.
Singer-actor Kuo’s puppydog earnestness is the sole saving grace here.
(ST)

Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen
The story: After her philandering husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) is arrested for his dubious business dealings, high-flying New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) falls on hard times. She heads to San Francisco to stay with her adopted sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and later meets a very eligible aspiring congressman, Dwight Westlake (Peter Sarsgaard).

Although it is not billed as such, Blue Jasmine is very much Woody Allen’s take on Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize- winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).
The prolific film-maker has transplanted the story from New Orleans to San Francisco while keeping the key characters intact.
Fragile southern belle Blanche DuBois is now shaky ex-socialite Jasmine and supportive sister Stella is sympathetic sister Ginger. Stella’s brutish husband Stanley (Marlon Brando’s breakout star turn in the 1951 film adaptation) is Ginger’s boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale).
The work may seem at first too dark and heavy for Allen’s sensibility. He is, after all, known for ensemble pieces which delve lightly into romance and comedy in films such as To Rome With Love (2012), Midnight In Paris (2011) and Everyone Says I Love You (1996).
But his lightness of touch in the upbeat jazzy score and the touches of humour are a nice counterpoint to Jasmine’s unravelling.
Also, Allen does not stick slavishly to Streetcar’s plot. While Jasmine clashes with Chili, their relationship does not quite collide the way it does in Streetcar.
The director also holds out the promise of a happy ending for Jasmine in the form of the perfect Dwight, though eventually that unravels as well.
Everything hinges upon Jasmine’s unhinging and Cate Blanchett (Notes On A Scandal, 2006) powers the film with her performance. An early clue that all is not quite right with her is the fact that she talks the ear off a reluctant fellow passenger.
Jasmine flits between denial and delusion and seems to have a rather tenuous grasp of the unpleasant present. The use of constant flashbacks to her moneyed tai-tai days mirrors how she easily slips into the past.
She is not the easiest person to get along with, with her posh airs and insensitive jibes about her sister’s life. Then there is also the awkward episode of a failed investment of Ginger (an engaging Sally Hawkins) and her ex-husband’s lottery winnings.
And yet, Blanchett also shows you the vulnerability of a woman buckling under pressure and anxiety.
Crucially, she does this without overacting, unlike, say Jessica Lange as Blanche in the 1995 television film adaptation of Streetcar.
Even a late twist in the tale does not diminish one’s sympathy for Jasmine and your heart goes out to her in the understatedly moving final scene.
(ST)

Tokyo Family
Yoji Yamada
The story: An old married couple Shukichi (Isao Hashizume, far right) and Tomiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki, right) travel to Tokyo to visit their three children. Eldest son Koichi (Masahiko Nishimura) runs a medical clinic, daughter Shigeko (Tomoko Nakajima) runs a neighbourhood hair salon and youngest son Shuji (Satoshi Tsumabuki, right seated) does set design for theatre. When Tomiko visits Shuji’s apartment, she is introduced to his fiancee Noriko (Yu Aoi).

Tokyo Story (1953) is often regarded as Japanese film-maker Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece and frequently appears on critics’ list of the greatest films of all time. In the authoritative British film magazine Sight & Sound’s once-every-decade critics’ poll, the black- and-white drama was third in 1992, fifth in 2002 and third again last year.
In other words, it is a daunting film to remake.
Fittingly, the director attempting it is someone of the stature of Yoji Yamada, best known for the long-running series of Tora-san films about a kind-hearted, unlucky-in-love vagabond, a cultural phenomenon spanning 48 films.
Not only that, he had also worked as assistant director on Tokyo Story and calls Ozu his teacher.
Tokyo Family stands on its own, and stands tall.
It was co-written by Yamada and Emiko Hiramatsu and keeps closely to Story in the plot and in terms of tone and sensibility. The focus is on family relationships and everything unfolds unhurriedly as the camera observes unobtrusively.
On the surface, not much happens. An old couple travel to Tokyo to visit their children, who try to fit them into their packed schedules. Quiet moments of interaction speak volumes.
Packed off to a seaside hotel by their oh-so-busy children, the elderly couple soon get bored. Tomiko remarks: “It’s hard to sleep in a wonderful bed like this.” She would rather enjoy the comforting warmth of a bed in her children’s homes.
While daughter Shigeko can be selfish and insensitive, there are no villains here.
Little episodes offer insights into the frustrations of the characters. At one point, Shukichi faces the threat of having nowhere to sleep for a night and ends up getting drunk at a pub with an old friend. He confesses: “What do I have to be happy about?”
There are moments of sweetness as well as when Tomiko stays at Shuji’s place and mother and son share a conversation about their other halves. The character of Shuji is a new addition as Noriko was a widow in the earlier film.
In Story, there was a pointed contrast between the kindness Noriko shows the old couple compared to how their children treat them. This time around, in addition to the Noriko, there is also Shuji. In the end, the unambitious son comes to be appreciated by his outwardly gruff father for his good-hearted nature.
True to the film’s tone, Yamada updates Family with subtle touches to ground it in modern-day Japan – a cab with a GPS navigation system, a Mandarin announcement at the train station to Chinese tourists.
The acting seems at first to be a bit stilted, as if in overt homage to an earlier period of film-making, but it turns out to be a way of marking generational differences in behaviour.
The cast is uniformly good, from Kazuko Yoshiyuki (Departures, 2008) as the sweet mother to Satoshi Tsumabuki (Waterboys, 2001) as the laidback Shuji. They make you feel like you have spent time with an actual family – and make you think about your own.
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Angel Wings
Rainie Yang
On her eighth studio album, Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang takes flight.
She has grown more confident, particularly over the course of the last three records, and sounds more alluring than the thin-voiced girl of the past.
Strangely enough, she is also sounding more and more like fellow popster Jolin Tsai. But while Tsai has been dancing up a storm, Yang has gone for ballads and mid-tempo numbers.
On the track Brave Love, there is a mix of bravura and vulnerability as she sings: “Just shout out loud, it’s good to be brave/Let me cry and let me fuss, let me understand suffering.”
Fish Gills, meanwhile, features some vivid imagery courtesy of Singaporean lyricist Xiaohan: “It’s as though my heart has grown gills, waking after oxygenation/Red blood is waiting, I just want to bid you goodbye wordlessly.”
Her musical journey seems to be reflected in the light-hearted Cleverness.
She croons: “Sometimes I’m sad, but I don’t cry/Still love roses, but not ambiguity (aimei)/Maybe this feeling is called growing up.” Aimei (My Intuition) is the title of her first solo album in 2005.
There is also a hopeful line in the lyrics, which goes: “Maybe, maybe, maybe/ It’s really wonderful now.” Given that Angel Wings has thus far spent four weeks on top of the authoritative G-Music album chart in Taiwan, this is not just wishful thinking on her part.
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Insidious: Chapter 2
James Wan
The story: In the first film, Insidious (2011), Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) had to free their young son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from demonic possession. The sequel picks up soon after the family relocate to live with Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey). Before long, strange things are happening again and ghostly figures appear.

There is a new master of horror and his name is James Wan. From the grisly Saw franchise to supernatural flicks Insidious and The Conjuring (2013), the Australian film-maker has a knack for, well, conjuring scares, and box-office hits, from modest budgets. Hollywood producers must love him.
His high productivity is another factor in his favour. Insidious: Chapter 2 hits screens just two months after The Conjuring.
Those who missed the first instalment need not worry. A police interview with Renai gives a quick summary of what happened previously.
Here, Wan’s grab-bag of tricks includes creaking doors, sudden loud noises and discordant music. Not exactly new but he does a decent job of maintaining a suspenseful, creepy atmosphere.
Some of it is in the set-up. When Josh and Renai’s two young boys are shown playing with a tin-can telephone, you just know, and hence anticipate, that the innocuous object will turn up again in some eerie scenario. The prop is used another time, albeit in a different context and hence, in a less expected manner.
Wan also plays with your expectations in other ways. In the case of a piano that seems to be playing itself, the reason is not as sinister as one might imagine.
There is also some interesting time-looping going on here. The film opens with video footage of a young Josh as he is questioned by a medium trying to find out what is haunting him. Events unfolding in the present eventually shed light on what takes place in that video.
In addition to the child-in-peril plot carried over from the first film, scriptwriter Leigh Whannell (Saw, 2004, and Insidious) adds another layer of unease. Is Josh who he says he is or has he been possessed by some malevolent force?
The cast is competent, from Rose Byrne (I Give It A Year, 2013) as the frazzled wife and mother, to Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, 2009) as the increasingly maniacal Josh. There are also some tension- relieving comic moments, courtesy of ghostbusting duo Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).
As the title suggests, and the ending confirms, Wan and Whannell are not quite ready to close the book on this horror tale yet.
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The Impressoul 01
Wu Jiahui, Cheryl Lee
Wu Jiahui is a sensitive singer- songwriter; Cheryl Lee is an all-round entertainer who dabbles in radio, theatre, film and television.
Together, the two Malaysians make beautiful music. All of the music is composed by Wu while Lee is responsible for the lyrics, save for bonus track How To Love. The instrumentation is simple and unfussy, keeping the focus on the emotive voices and engaging songs.
Lee sings lightly of denial on Don’t Wish To Listen: “Just don’t wish to listen, close my eyes tightly/Throttle this secret with my own hands/Just won’t admit, I’m as fragile as glass.”
On Tangled, Wu trods on emotional ground: “Each and every move of my heart, memory is looking/The wind blows, the grass rustles, take the chance to pounce on me, knowing I’m weak.”
They duet on ballad Don’t Say You Don’t Know and the more upbeat Breaking Up Is Reasonable. Lee croons on the latter: “I want you to find someone who loves you more/To look after the soul of tomorrow’s tomorrow’s tomorrow’s you.”
A soothingly soulful collaboration.
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Young Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon
The story: In this prequel to Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame (2010), Mark Chao takes over from Andy Lau in the role of Tang Dynasty investigator Dee Renjie. Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) tasks the Supreme Court’s Yuchi (Feng Shaofeng) to find out the truth behind the decimation of the naval fleet, supposedly by the Sea Dragon. And what exactly is courtesan Yin’s (Angelababy) connection to yet another sea creature and how is that related to the attack at sea? Dee, newly arrived in the capital, gets involved in the complicated case with some help from young doctor Shatuo (Lin Gengxin).

The creative team of the earlier hit, director Tsui Hark and writer Chen Kuo-fu, reunite for this second film. And clearly, they believe in the mantra that bigger is better.
As you might surmise from the summary earlier, there is a lot going on here. Subsequently, the movie almost gets crushed under the weight of the story.
From the half-man, half-sea creature fixated with Yin, Dee gets a clue that points to a teahouse. The trail leads to a specific tea supplied to the royal court and a nefarious plot to topple the Tang Dynasty.
There are more plot twists and turns to navigate before the moviegoer gets to a tense face-off.
Hanging precariously onto ropes on a cliff-face over a yawning chasm, Dee and company have to fend off a highly skilled masked assailant – and yet this is not quite the finale.
With so many loose ends to tie up though, the movie begins to suggest to the audience that it simply will not end.
To be sure, the X-Files-meets-Sherlock Holmes vibe in a period China setting remains entertaining, and China actor Chen Kun is a hammy hoot playing a mad scientist-physician who has an ape’s limb for one of his hands.
But there seem to be more cracks in the prequel. The patently fake-looking CGI takes one out of the story while Dee’s ability to not just read lips but also do so from a distance, seems a tad too convenient.
While Andy Lau turned in a relaxed performance in his outing as the observant detective in the first movie, rising Taiwanese star Mark Chao’s performance is a bit too smug in parts. You even start to sympathise with Yuchi for getting frustrated for being thwarted and outsmarted all the time.
Compared to the first movie, the women get short shrift here. Carina Lau, although reliably imposing as the empress, sees her role become smaller this time around. Angelababy is largely required to look good while flailing about in flowy robes.
There is still life in the Detective Dee franchise but the next instalment will have to do a better job in order to rise to the high expectations created by the first film.
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A sex scene between a private detective and a neglected wife opens HBO Asia’s first original drama series, Serangoon Road.
For those hoping for another serving of the abundant sex and nude scenes featured in many HBO series, including Sex And The City (1998-2004), True Blood (2008-present) and Game Of Thrones (2011-present), there is good news and bad news. It is clear that the raunchy quotient has been toned down for this HBO Asia production. On the other hand, the sultry Singapore climate means that the hunky male lead – Australian actor Don Hany – is often shirtless when he is at home.
The sex factor aside, HBO is also the marquee name for quality, ground-breaking dramas. So naturally, expectations are high for HBO Asia’s first foray into an original series. And it is one set in Singapore, no less.
Early signs are good.
The 10-parter is set in 1960s Singapore and follows the investigations of a private detective agency owned by Patricia Cheng (Joan Chen), who is searching for answers to her husband’s murder.
She ropes in as investigator former Australian soldier Sam Callaghan (Hany), who is having an affair with a lonely expatriate wife, Mrs Claire Simpson (Maeve Dermody).
The multiracial cast also includes home-grown actors, from Los Angeles-based Chin Han as Kay Song, an ambitious secret society figure, to Alaric Tay as Callaghan’s sidekick to Pamelyn Chee as a forward-thinking young woman who works at the agency.
Among the things a pilot episode has to do is give viewers an idea of who’s who, what’s where and, at the same time, tell a gripping, self-contained story that will make viewers want to follow the series.
In trying to juggle too many balls, Serangoon Road’s opening salvo comes up a little short. It manages to introduce a good number of characters and also establishes a sense of time and place, but the initial story itself is not very strong.
An American soldier is killed and Callaghan is roped in to investigate. Things fall into place and people open up to him a little too easily. There is not much momentum or suspense.
At least the crime is cleverly set in Bugis, a colourful and rough-edged area where transvestites, sailors and crooks mingled back in the day. It is a good way of showcasing the handsome, expansive set on Batam and the top-notch production values for this period drama, whose budget HBO Asia declined to reveal.
Also, the makers of the series – directors Peter Andrikidis (for episodes one to five) and Tony Tilse (episodes six to 10) and head scriptwriter Michaelay O’Brien – cannot be accused of gratuitously exoticising an Asian setting, given the real-life Bugis’ seedy reputation then.
In the same vein, the choice of a white protagonist for a series set in 1960s Singapore could set off alarm bells in some viewers at first. Is this going to be some exoticised version of the East seen through Western eyes?
While Callaghan does seem to be the hero about town, particularly in episode one, his character is also one that makes sense in a historical context. Poised between a recent colonial past and an imminent, unsought-for independence, there were different worlds jostling alongside one another in Singapore in 1964. A white man at that time could conceivably have access to many of these worlds, from high-society soirees to smoky gambling dens.
And kudos to Hany for speaking reasonably intelligible Mandarin, as opposed to, say, the offensive gibberish that Bradley Cooper spouted in the final scene of the sci-fi flick Limitless (2011).
Indeed, in this polygot melting pot, only Chee’s accent juts out for being too posh and polished. Maybe there is some reason for it, but at the moment, it is mostly distracting.
As for the rest of the cast, Chen is sympathetic as a widow searching for the truth. (I am curious, though: What is it exactly that she does as head of the agency?) Chin Han gets to exude some menace and you can certainly count on Kay Song to feature more prominently as the series progresses.
Episode two – featuring veterans of the local small screen and stage Xiang Yun and Tan Kheng Hua – picks up with a stronger story about the case of a missing husband.
It is great to see home-grown talent flexing their acting chops on this platform and the thought of more of them gracing the show is encouraging.
Meanwhile, the central mystery of Cheng’s dead husband beckons and the hope is that it does not unspool too predictably.
For now, Serangoon Road is a promising ride which hints tantalisingly at the twists and turns ahead.
(ST)

Silly Tango
Hu Xia
Boyish-looking, bespectacled China singer Hu Xia is best known for the touching theme song, Those Bygone Years, from the Taiwanese hit youth drama You Are The Apple Of My Eye (2011). On this disc, he must be hoping that lightning will strike twice with Change It Over, which, at some points, threatens to segue into that earlier hit.
At least the opening track, Static Electricity, and the title number, Silly Tango, head off in less expected directions. Castanets and accordion give Silly Tango an unusual musical flavour as Hu tangos with his emotions.
The album is generally heavy on ballads, which suits his clear and expressive voice.
Among them, Could We Make It leaves a deeper impression with Lin Xi’s wry lyrics: “We might not get caught in the rain in the future/Because we need to take care of our health.”
My Smiles Belong To You is another standout. Singer-songwriter Sandee Chan penned the lyrics and co-wrote the music: “You left a space for me to secretly listen to your heart/You’ve kept watch over a silence, waiting for him to say he loves you.”
Rather than following in past footsteps, original poignant ballads are the way to go if Hu wants to waltz with success.
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We're A Nice Normal Family
Luc Besson
Director Luc Besson’s stab at black comedy is neither dark enough nor funny enough. Maybe it is a case of a different cultural sensibility of humour that does not quite translate from French to English for the director of The Fifth Element (1997).
Giovanni Maznoni (Robert De Niro) is a mobster who snitched and is now living in France under the witness protection programme with his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle (Dianna Agron of TV’s Glee) and son Warren (John D’Leo). Their minder is exasperated FBI agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).
It turns out that dad is not the only one with violent tendencies: There is some fun in watching how each member of the family unleashes an explosive side when cornered, angered or just mildly provoked.
But instead of stretching this out for more laughs, the movie gets distracted with, among other things, a cute mathematics tutor for Belle, while Giovanni goes in search of the culprit behind the town’s brown tap water.
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American Dreams In China
Peter Chan
The story: Cheng Dongqing (Huang Xiaoming), Meng Xiaojun (Deng Chao) and Wang Yang (Tong Dawei) meet at university and become firm friends. Years later, Cheng and Wang set up an English language school and Meng joins them after a stint abroad in the United States. But running a business together eventually threatens to tear their friendship apart. It takes a legal suit from an American testing service to reunite the trio.

As far as portraits of the China Dream go, director Peter Chan’s take is far more realistic and engaging than the recent flight of fancy that was Tiny Times.
Interestingly, both were hits in China. Dreams took in 535 million yuan (S$110 million) at the box office while Times chalked up 483 million yuan.
As the title here makes clear, the China Dream is very much about America.
The film opens with the different experiences of the three friends in their attempts to get a visa to the United States, providing quick sketches of the three main characters. Meng Xiaojun is confident and smooth; Wang Yang is impulsive; and Cheng Dongqing is something of a straight arrow.
The suave-looking and hunky Huang Xiaoming (The Last Tycoon, 2012) plays against type as the country bumpkin loser, Cheng. He is hidden under a dorky haircut and ugly spectacles and manages to come across as a bumbling young man with a lack of self-confidence.
For his persuasive transformation, Huang was nominated for a Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor at China’s equivalent of the Oscars. Dreams’ five other nominations include nods for Best Film and Best Director.
Huang is well-matched by Deng Chao (Mural, 2011), whose arrogant and proud Meng ends up eating humble pie in America, and by Tong Dawei (Lost In Beijing, 2007), the ladies’ man who ends up as the mediator of the group.
The chemistry the three leads have with one another make you care for their characters.
In a pivotal scene at Wang’s wedding, the tipsy groom advises everyone to never start a business with one’s best friends. Resentments and slights, real or imagined, accumulated over the years, spill out in an emotional confrontation.
As in Comrades, Almost A Love Story (1996), Chan here grounds the film in reality with a few well-placed period details and choice use of music. They range from the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opening in China to a choice soundtrack mixing Mandopop hits such as Su Rei’s The Same Moonlight with American classics such as Peter, Paul & Mary’s Leaving On A Jet Plane.
He also works in the larger themes of the souring of the American Dream and the current rise of China, though some of that play out with a jingoistic edge that seems calculated for a mainland audience. Hence, its appeal in Singapore may be limited.
Where the movie is more moving is in its story of a friendship tested by the realities of commerce and how youthful idealism is eventually tempered.
As one character remarks poignantly: “We wanted to change the world, but ended up being changed by it.”
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Prisoners
Denis Villeneuve
The story: Six-year-old Anna and seven-year-old Joy are abducted on Thanksgiving. Suspicion falls on Alex Jones (Paul Dano). Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) races against time as he tries to track down the girls. And Anna’s father Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) will do anything to get her back.

This could easily have been a run-of-the-mill, crime-of-the-week telemovie-type affair. But in the hands of French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners is a gripping thriller that does not let up until the final frame.
He is best known for the searing French-Arabic Incendies, in which a pair of siblings travel to the Middle East and end up uncovering shocking family secrets. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 2011.
Prisoners shows that his knack for compelling storytelling has survived the transition to his English-language debut.
Working with a screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband, 2012), the director keeps you hooked in various ways.
A desperate Keller captures Alex in the belief that he knows where the girls are and proceeds to tighten the screws on him. But with an IQ of a 10-year-old, can Alex really be the culprit? Is he capable of being that diabolical? Surely what Keller is doing is wrong but what if it actually leads to information that can save the two girls?
Villeneuve keeps you guessing whom the movie is going to vindicate or vilify.
All this while, the clock is ticking because with each passing hour and each nerve-racking day, the chances of the girls being found alive diminish.
Villeneuve’s assured direction can be seen in his careful pacing over the 21/2 hours as well as his confidence in going for the quiet moments, culminating in an ending which provides a resolution without spelling everything out over a blasting soundtrack.
The cast is top-notch as well.
Hugh Jackman’s intense grief and explosive anger make Keller a man you absolutely do not want to cross, while Jake Gyllenhaal humanises the dogged Loki with his habit of blinking furiously when he gets frustrated.
Clashing over the case, the two have a tense showdown in a car in a scene that threatens to boil over at any second.
The rest of the cast include feted actors Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, 2005) and Viola Davis (The Help, 2011) as Joy’s parents and Melissa Leo (Frozen River, 2008) as Alex’s aunt. Mario Bello (A History Of Violence, 2005) is Keller’s devastated wife.
Clearly, all these actors signed up, even for supporting roles, because they knew a good thing when they saw one.
No doubt about it, Prisoners will hold you captive as well.
(ST)

Renovate
Soft Lipa
The album cover promises that this contains Taiwanese rapper Soft Lipa’s naked confessions. It is about the best and worst of him and it holds nothing back. It is a bold claim, but then again, there has never been anything timid about his music. In previous outings, he had bridged hip-hop with jazz (Moonlight, 2010) as well as hip-hop with folk (Have A Holiday, 2012) with various collaborators.
This time, it is Soft Lipa front and centre over a sprawling two-disc set. On the first disc alone, the subjects tackled run the gamut from the fecal to the carnal. The provocatively titled King Of S*** goes: “Longest bout of diarrhoea, best way of wiping the a**/Finally reached this stage, all hail the king”.
And on Ahhh Yeah, he delves into desire and seduction: “With you, I want to/Ahh Yeah Ahh Yeah/ Emanating, and grasping, just the right amount of humour/For just the right reward”.
On the album closer Shi Poem, he raps: “You should be 38, if I could change anything, you would be rich/Are you still on meds? Returned to the middle path or sneered at for being crazy?/What about your parents? Have they signed the divorce papers?/Have you remembered the stories of them and them?”
It feels deeply personal and confessional at the same time. As promised, no holds barred.
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The Bling Ring
Sofia Coppola
The story: The Bling Ring was the catchy name coined for a group of seven teenagers and young adults who burgled the homes of celebrities such as Paris Hilton. In the film, it starts with new student Marc Hall (Israel Broussard) falling under the spell of Rebecca Ahn (Katie Chang). From unlocked cars to his friend’s unoccupied house, they move on to target celebrities’ pads. Their friends Chloe (Claire Julien), Nicki (Emma Watson) and her adopted sister Sam (Taissa Farmiga) get drawn in as well. Based on the Vanity Fair magazine article The Suspects Wore Louboutins by Nancy Jo Sales.

In one scene, singer M.I.A.’s Bad Girls is blasting over the car stereo and the characters are belting out along: “Live fast, die young/Bad girls do it well”. It might as well as be their personal motto.
Maybe not the “die young” part, but certainly with the living fast. Rebecca and her ilk are creations of the celebrity-obsessed culture. They pore over magazines and gossip websites and draw sustenance on the neverending stream of images of the rich and the fabulous.
Add to that a sense of self-entitlement and the result is a combustible mix. They want to live like the rich and fabulous without actually doing any of the work to get there. Hey, if Paris Hilton can do it, why not them?
And so they treat the homes of the stars as their personal shopping malls, rifling through walk-in closets and raiding jewellery boxes with abandon.
Hilton, who was a real-life victim of the gang, lent her home to writer-director Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation, 2003) to film in for that extra touch of authenticity.
Coppola also draws compelling performances from newcomers Katie Chang and Israel Broussard. You can understand why Marc falls under her spell and her strength of will. She has him completely under her thumb and she gets him to suss out where the stars live, a handy Google search away.
There is hardly any sense of wrongdoing on their part and Marc’s half-hearted protests are brusquely brushed aside by Rebecca. Besides, their friends are envious of their exploits and eventually tag along.
You also get an intimate sense of their world in the film.
The dialogue is as vacuous as the characters and peppered with “cool” and “sick” and other slick adjectives that reduce everything, and everyone, to snap judgments.
Adult supervision is largely missing or it is ineffectual, as in the case of Nicki’s mother (Leslie Mann) with her New Age-y beliefs.
For all its throbbing energy, the film sags a little in the middle. The break-ins get a little repetitive as the gang go after the lodgings of stars such as Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan.
Eventually, they get their comeuppance.
Rebecca tries to play innocent, Marc is remorseful and Nicki parlays her notoriety into five minutes of fame. Emma Watson was more effective in the teen drama The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012) than here, where her performance almost borders on parody.
The shift in focus from Rebecca and Marc to Nicki feels a little jarring. But it also makes sense since things come full circle with her story arc. Even if her claim to fame is dubious, Nicki is now a bona fide celebrity in her own right.
(ST)

The English Teacher
Craig Fisk
The story: Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore) is a high school English teacher in a small town. When a former student Jason Sherwood (Michael Angarano) comes back with an unproduced play, she decides to rope in frustrated drama teacher Carl Kapinas (Nathan Lane) to put it on. And this puts her on a collision course with Jason’s father (Greg Kinnear).

At its core, The English Teacher is a character study.
Linda Sinclair is someone who has come to accept her place in life. She might never meet the right man – her dates constantly fail to make the grade - but at least she is shaping lives with her classes.
And when the opportunity comes to help a former student whom she believes is talented, she charges to the fore. She even tangles with the father, who seems more keen to have his son pursue law studies.
She has good intentions but things start to snowball and spin out of control, both with the play and her own personal life.
It is a role that can go quite dark but Craig Fisk, making his film directorial debut here, goes for more of a comic tone.
And accordingly, Julianne Moore, who has played characters in emotional pain in such films as The Hours (2002) and Far From Heaven (2002), turns in a performance here that is sunnier than usual.
But the film might have been more interesting if Zisk had pushed it more. As it is, it feels rather lightweight and the ending too neat and tidy.
Remember that one student in class who always raised his or her hands and wanted to impress the teacher? The English Teacher is, in some respects, that eager beaver who tries a little too hard.
Take the voiceover, which gives the film something of a literary air. Fair enough, given the protagonist is an English teacher and the fact that it revolves around a play. But then the voiceover becomes a strained gimmick at the film’s end as the narrator finds the story getting away from her.
There is also a little inside joke about Carl Kapinas’ failed audition for musical titan Stephen Sondheim.
It might raise a smile if you know that Nathan Lane has, in fact, worked with the man in shows such as A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Otherwise, it is merely an anecdote that is not particularly funny.
A teacher might comment of this film: Needs more work.
(ST)

The Key
Eason Chan

½ Century Tour
Jacky Cheung

You never quite know what you are going to get with Hong Kong singer Eason Chan and that is part of the fun.
On his last Cantonese release ...3mm (2012), he went for electro-pop and took swipes at consumerist culture.
The material on his new album is more varied, starting with the musical drama of The Main Theme. It starts out almost like a gothic ballad and then takes unexpected turns along the way, morphing into an electric rock number: “Now, you have your pace, I have mine/We meet again, pity the time isn’t right.”
On the lovely ballad The Wanderer, he sings about going your own way: “The urchin grows up, don’t ask any more, just let me go/Why does one end up following the crowd/Men are like sheep.”
When it comes to music, or outrageous fashion choices, or chastising inconsiderate fans, you can always count on Chan to be himself and not hold anything back.
The album comes with a bonus CD single which holds the duet of two gods of song – Chan and Jacky Cheung.
The single is far sunnier than the songs on the album, as the two sing a motivational ballad about the people of Hong Kong being in the same boat: “There’s still a road for us ahead/There’s still life shimmering, soaring over the city and ports.”
Their voices blend together nicely and soar in the chorus.
The single is also bundled together with Cheung’s live concert album. To mark his 50th birthday, he embarked on an ambitious world tour which comprised 146 concerts in 77 cities from 2010 to last year.
This recording is of the final leg held in Hong Kong last May and it feels like the complete audio track of the gig. Musical interludes and banter are all included; the only thing missing is the visual component.
In this case, the DVD or Blu-ray would serve up the total package.
The meat though is the songs themselves. Fans will have a feast as he covers plenty of ground. From Cantonese classics such as Only Want To Be With You to a rock version of Mandarin monster hit Farewell Kiss to dipping into his jazz album Private Corner (2010), there is something for everyone.
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